Sen. Elizabeth Warren announces her run for re-election to the U.S. Senate in February 2018. (Photo: Flickr)

Elizabeth Warren wants to cancel part or all student loan debt for 95 percent of Americans and make public college free for everyone—the latest, and perhaps most ambitious, policy proposal for the 2020 Democratic contender.

The Massachusetts Democrat told readers that her own past as a waitress who was able to attend public college due to the school's low cost is now unattainable for most Americans.

But Warren aims to change that.

"The first step in addressing this crisis is to deal head-on with the outstanding debt that is weighing down millions of families and should never have been required in the first place," wrote Warren. "That's why I'm calling for something truly transformational — the cancellation of up to $50,000 in student loan debt for 42 million Americans."

Warren, in a fundraising email to supporters, said that the policy's goals writ large aimed at righting past wrongs.

"My plan for universal free college would give every American the opportunity to attend a two-year or four-year public college without paying a dime in tuition or fees," said Warren. "And we'll make free college truly universal—not just in theory, but in practice—by making higher education of all kinds more inclusive and available to every single American, especially lower-income, Black, and Latinx students, without the need to take on debt to cover costs. Free tuition, and zero debt at graduation."

one of the most interesting things about warren's student loan/free college plan is its specific focus on racial inequality pic.twitter.com/mfILTW2eGU

That will also take public investment, saidThe New York Times's Astead W. Herndon.

Ms. Warren's sweeping plan has several planks.... In addition to eliminating undergraduate tuition at public colleges and universities, she would expand federal grants to help students with nontuition expenses and create a $50 billion fund to support historically black colleges and universities.

Estimates put the cost of the program at around $1.25 trillion.

The education overhaul would be paid for, Warren told Herndon, by less than half of a decade's worth of her Ultra-Millionaire Tax — a 2 percent annual tax on the 75,000 families with $50 million or more in wealth.

Warren's wealth tax would generate $2.75 trillion over a decade, leaving $1.5 trillion available for her other proposed transformative social policies, like protecting public lands from exploitation and universal childcare and pre-k.

In an interview aired Monday, Warren told CNN's M.J. Lee that her program goes further than the free college plan put forward by her 2020 primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

"It covers more and it addresses both the access question of going to college and the problem of the debt burden for our students," said Warren.

Elizabeth Warren told me in our sitdown that her new proposal is "bigger" and "goes further" than Bernie Sanders' free college legislation -- "It covers more and it addresses both the access question of going to college and the problem of the debt burden for our students." pic.twitter.com/ZrMRzC1jAV

This is test for all of the people who are always bleating about wanting *substance* re: domestic policies during campaigns. I never believe them so let's see... Warren is consistently offering substantive policies (let's see if folks will actually evaluate them). https://t.co/X71HuZHhTJ

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A belated, heartfelt happy birthday to Harvey Milk, assassinated in 1978 for daring to come out of the closet, be himself and insist on his rights, who would have turned 89 this week. On Harvey Milk Day, California passed a resolution honoring his "critical role in creating the modern LGBT movement." From one ally: "He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it." These dark days, his message resonates more than ever: "You stand up and fight."

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